1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,920 This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3,880 for Friday the 16th of June 2023. 2 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:19,480 Today's show is entitled, Installing a Google Nest Thermostat. 3 00:00:19,480 --> 00:00:24,080 It is hosted by Ahu Kahn and is about 13 minutes long. 4 00:00:24,080 --> 00:00:26,680 It carries a clean flag. 5 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:41,040 The summary is I installed a new Smart Thermostat. 6 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:42,040 Hello! 7 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:46,920 This is Ahu Kahn, welcoming you to another exciting episode of Hacker Public Radio and I'm 8 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:55,680 going to talk about a little technical problem I dealt with recently and it has to 9 00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:58,800 do with a thermostat. 10 00:00:58,800 --> 00:01:06,320 We had an old thermostat, I won't say it was that old, but it had started misbehaving. 11 00:01:06,320 --> 00:01:10,920 It had up and down buttons that should have let you change the temperature setting, except 12 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:14,000 that they suddenly stopped working. 13 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:18,320 And when it's cold outside and you can't raise the temperature inside, it does kind 14 00:01:18,320 --> 00:01:19,800 of suck. 15 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:22,440 So it was clearly time for a change. 16 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:28,800 I decided that for my purposes a Google Nest Thermostat was the best option. 17 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:31,840 There are two options here. 18 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:35,360 I mean there are two kinds of Google Nest thermostats. 19 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:41,440 There's a more expensive learning thermostat that says it learns your patterns and automatically 20 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:45,040 adjusts your settings as it learns them. 21 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:51,400 And then a simpler model at about half the price that you control via your smartphone. 22 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:59,680 So I didn't see that paying twice as much money bought me all that much. 23 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:04,720 So I went for the simpler, less expensive model. 24 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:07,560 It does everything I wanted to do. 25 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:13,120 I can enter settings manually on my smartphone, which is fine. 26 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:17,680 And also I can remotely control the temperature on my smartphone since it is connected 27 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:20,120 to my home Wi-Fi network. 28 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:26,000 Now, that's handy because I can change the temperature when we're traveling to save energy. 29 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:34,680 I just know need to heat the house to human comfort temperature when there's no humans there. 30 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:39,160 And then when the plane lands at the airport, I can log in and set the temperature so it 31 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:41,720 is comfortable when we walk in the door. 32 00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:43,720 Very handy that. 33 00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:48,160 Now, if you want to know a little more about this thermostat, there is a consumer 34 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:55,400 reports review, there's a link in the show notes, you can read that and get an idea. 35 00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:01,480 You could also, you could order this from Google and have it shipped to you, but I actually 36 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:09,280 found it at my local lows for the same price Google would charge, so I picked it up immediately. 37 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:16,400 Next I checked out a video on how to do the install and found one on YouTube, again, a link 38 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:18,400 in the show notes. 39 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:24,360 It's technically, I had watched several videos before hand to convince myself that this 40 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:33,760 was within my capabilities, but then, you know, before actually starting to do the install, 41 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:36,240 I reviewed them again. 42 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:41,240 It looked fairly easy, so first I went to the distribution panel and turned off the 43 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:43,440 circuit breaker for the furnace. 44 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:48,360 Now, as it happened, the furnace was running at that moment, so I immediately heard it 45 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:55,680 turn off, which was a nice confirmation that I had, in fact, cut the power. 46 00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:59,160 Next I removed the cover plate on the old thermostat. 47 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:04,960 It was just a plastic plate that snapped on and I got it off easily. 48 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:09,560 The next step they recommend is to take a picture of the wires as they exist. 49 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:13,560 Now, I had seemed sensible, so I took the photo. 50 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:18,560 It was a bit dark in the hallway, so I used my flash for that. 51 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:23,040 Then I opened up the box for the new Google Nest thermostat and found that unlike the 52 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:29,000 video, it did not come with a screwdriver and cover plate for the wall, but that was not 53 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:30,400 a biggie for me. 54 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:35,920 I can fix the wall, I have more screwdrivers than I really need, I suspect, including all 55 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:40,880 of the mini drivers for electronics. 56 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:44,160 What was in the box importantly was the labels to put on the wires. 57 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:49,840 They should be color-coded, but you really don't want to somehow get your wires mixed up. 58 00:04:49,840 --> 00:04:56,120 Since this was a dark area, I pulled over a floor lamp to provide strong illumination. 59 00:04:56,120 --> 00:05:01,360 The wires in the thermostat were connected to screw connections that were labeled with labels 60 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:05,480 like Y1G and so on. 61 00:05:05,480 --> 00:05:10,120 What you want to do is disconnect one wire at a time and put the appropriate label on 62 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:15,800 it so you can later connect it correctly to the new Google Nest thermostat. 63 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:21,720 The wire should be color-coded anyway, but you need to watch out for Y and Y2 or W and 64 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:27,320 W2, and in my system, the Y2 was blue and the W2 was orange. 65 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:32,800 So it's a good idea to label them even if it is a finicky job. 66 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:36,480 If all of my wires labeled, it was time to remove the old unit. 67 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:42,360 It was held in by two screws, one on each side, which in turn were held in the drywall 68 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:44,440 by two wall anchors. 69 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:50,560 I pulled the anchors and screws out and set them aside and ended up using them later. 70 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:54,800 With the screws removed, all I had to do was push the wires back through the hole in 71 00:05:54,800 --> 00:06:00,160 the middle of the unit and now I had an ugly hole in my wall with wires coming out. 72 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:02,160 Progress there. 73 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:07,840 I didn't get the Nest unit and instead of screws on each side, it is held on by screws 74 00:06:07,840 --> 00:06:09,800 top and bottom. 75 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:15,520 Now the Nest unit comes with two long, self-tapping screws, but I did not feel like 76 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:21,000 that gave me a good solid connection to the drywall. 77 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:29,720 If I was able to mount this on top of something more substantial, those screws might be 78 00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:36,160 good, but in this case I decided that the screws in the wall anchors, I set aside from 79 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:40,200 the old one, was a much better option. 80 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:46,880 You put in the top screw first and used the built-in level to level the unit and it has 81 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:49,720 a little bubble level built into it. 82 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:53,240 You mark the bottom screw and then attach it. 83 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:58,120 Now the next step for me was the wires that all been attached to screw terminals in the 84 00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:01,920 old unit, so they had hooks formed on the end. 85 00:07:01,920 --> 00:07:06,880 Google Nest uses push-in connections, so I had to straighten out all of the ends, pliers 86 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:10,120 to care that part. 87 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:14,960 Then to make the connections, on Google Nest there are push-in terminals on the left 88 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:22,200 and right, and they are labeled similarly to the wires, and you know, the labeling is 89 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:32,120 all based on colors, really, y is yellow, g is green, and so on. 90 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:37,800 So you hold down a tab on the back of each terminal, insert the appropriate wire, and then 91 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:44,640 release the tab to secure it, and it's pretty simple, but because they had previously 92 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:49,600 had hooks for the connections, they had stripped more of the wire than was really needed 93 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:58,160 for my installation, and leaving bare wire is not usually a good idea, so I cut off about 94 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:06,760 half of the wire and each of them using my needle-nose pliers with the built-in wire cutter. 95 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:12,920 Then I needed to do a bit more research, since I still had wires left over. 96 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:16,920 Hmm, is this going to work or not? 97 00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:24,160 A little research online on places like Electronics Hub plus a look at the Google documentation, 98 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:27,880 and I've got links to all of this in the show notes. 99 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:32,880 Let me to conclude that the added wires were for features I don't have. 100 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:42,920 I think when we had that furnace put in, and the old thermostat put in, you know, 101 00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:50,360 they had probably made provision for additional things that could be added later, but 102 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:53,240 weren't really doing anything. 103 00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:57,660 The black wire, for instance, I had a black wire, and that's a power wire, but the 104 00:08:57,660 --> 00:09:01,080 nest doesn't need a power wire. 105 00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:09,600 The orange wire, which was labeled W2, in my old system, is for a two-stage heating system. 106 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:15,920 The blue wire labeled W2 in my old system is for a heat pump, which I also don't have. 107 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:23,160 So I just put electrical tape around the ends of the wires for safety, and then put the 108 00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:27,920 display cover of the nest back on. 109 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:35,440 Then I took it off again after learning I needed information from the back of it. 110 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:41,060 Now the installation at this point is done on the Google Home app on my phone, and in fact 111 00:09:41,060 --> 00:09:45,560 there were instructions for everything I already did that are on this phone app. 112 00:09:45,560 --> 00:09:49,720 I suppose I should have gone here sooner, but no harm. 113 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:51,280 I got there. 114 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:56,280 The one wrinkle I ran into is that it asked me which wires I had, and I answered for all 115 00:09:56,280 --> 00:10:02,120 of them, which led Google to conclude the nest was not compatible with my system. 116 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:06,760 But since I had already concluded that I didn't need those wires, I just started over, 117 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:15,160 and this time told them I only had the four wires W, Y, G, and R, and it was happy. 118 00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:22,280 Anyway, to get this going, I had to read the QR code on the back of the display cover. 119 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:31,440 Now, this is the thermostat is in basically in two pieces. 120 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:38,440 The part that mounts directly to the wall where the wires are connected as the electronics 121 00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:46,680 electronic connections, and then there's the display which plugs into it, which sort 122 00:10:46,680 --> 00:10:49,480 of is a cover. 123 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:55,800 So it was on the back of that that I had to get the QR code once I had done that, I could 124 00:10:55,800 --> 00:11:04,800 put it back, and now once I did that, the Google Home app takes you through several steps, 125 00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:10,880 including, importantly, the Wi-Fi network connection, which is the key to us usefulness. 126 00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:17,760 So I entered that information, then it downloaded updates from the internet, because of 127 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:21,920 course it did, and I was then ready to configure it. 128 00:11:21,920 --> 00:11:27,080 I set up daytime and nighttime temperatures, which for me means a bit higher during the 129 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:32,600 day when I'm working, and a little lower at night when I'm sleeping. 130 00:11:32,600 --> 00:11:38,040 I then set the times, so it'd be warming up a half hour before my alarm rose off, and 131 00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:40,640 cools down a half hour before bedtime. 132 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:45,440 Of course, these can be changed at any time. 133 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:53,320 Now the final step is applying for my rebate. Our utility here, DTE, which to trite 134 00:11:53,320 --> 00:12:00,800 something energy, offers rebates for energy saving appliances and a smart thermostat qualifies 135 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:05,960 for a $50 rebate. That makes it worth jumping through one or two hoops to get, so I 136 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:08,680 filled out the paperwork. 137 00:12:08,680 --> 00:12:13,000 And now as I write this, my home is nice and warm, and my new thermostat seems to be 138 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:18,240 doing a great job. The last step is to make it pretty. 139 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:25,480 I thought I could get the trim kit delivered overnight from Amazon, and so I ordered it. 140 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:33,880 And when it came, I found what I had to do is go and take everything apart, because the 141 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:38,680 trim kit has to be the first thing that goes against the wall. 142 00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:48,960 So I had to remove the display cover, then unscrew and remove the base plate in the process 143 00:12:48,960 --> 00:13:03,680 removing the wire connections, then I could put the trim plate on, reinstall the back plate, 144 00:13:03,680 --> 00:13:12,360 we make all the electrical connections, put the display cover back on, and now it seems 145 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:16,160 to be working just fine. 146 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:22,520 And the only thing is there's a little bit of unpainted wall because the display plate, 147 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:28,600 the trim plate that I got from the Google thing, doesn't quite cover everything that the 148 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:30,840 old thermostat covered. 149 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:35,600 But that's pretty minor, you know, just a little dash of paint will solve that, but 150 00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:40,000 I'm probably going to let my wife handle it because she's the one who handles those kinds 151 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:41,720 of things. 152 00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:48,280 So anyway, this is Hoka for Hacker Public Radio signing off and encouraging everyone 153 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:50,400 to support free software. 154 00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:54,840 Bye-bye. 155 00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:59,600 You have been listening to Hacker Public Radio at Hacker Public Radio.org. 156 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:04,800 Today's show was contributed by a HBR this night like yourself, if you ever thought 157 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:11,360 of recording podcasts, click on our contributally to find out how easy it means. 158 00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:18,360 Hosting for HBR has been kindly provided by an onsthost.com, the internet archive and our 159 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:19,840 synced.net. 160 00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:26,180 On the satellite stages, today's show is released on our Creative Commons, attribution for 161 00:14:26,180 --> 00:14:31,660 going to international license.